Agrawal explains that camel milk passes into the bloodstream quickly because it has low coagulum (which create curds in the stomach). With no digestive solids to impede quick assimilation, the high-insulin milk enters the bloodstream immediately, benefiting those whose own insulin secretions are inadequate. He also claims that camel milk benefits cell function of the pancreas, another important benefit to diabetics.

The National Nutrition Institute in Cairo’s analysis of camel milk showed high levels of iron, zinc and copper in camel milk, but especially high levels of Vitamin C.

Will these discoveries make an impact on Western medicine? It may, albeit slowly. While vast camel herds roam the deserts of Sudan and Somalia, there are relatively few in the First World. And camels give comparatively little milk: 13 pints to a cow’s 50.

Still, there’s hope for diabetics in the USA: the American Camel Coalition, a group of camel dairies, has recently obtained permission to sell camel milk from the FDA. And in Britain, powdered camel milk should be available soon, pending approval from the European Commission . Vitamol Camel Dairy and Products has been set up by Germans Malik Dakdaki and Martin Wilke and Moroccan Abdelkader Saoudi. The three partners plan to invest US$40m in the project.

Find consuming camel strange? Get over that hump. More on the incredible, edible camel:

Laurie, I would look for Vitamol and Camel-licious products. But if they contain sugar, they won’t help you, of course.

I keep kosher myself, so don’t expect to taste camel milk, but if the Camel-licious people are successfully flavoring and marketing it, you can flavor it too. It’s said to be quite unlike other mammal milks – thin, bland and a little salty. Maybe you’d like it just as it is. Another claim for it is that milk-intolerant people do tolerate it.